What's wrong with this picture?

Pat Flannery wrote:

On the other hand, von Braun's design had a bit more spacious crew
quarters than the LM offered:
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~jsisson/gifs/mooncon2.gif
(the command sphere of one of the Moonships)

It's worth mentioning that this painting is the work of Fred Freeman,
not Bonestell.

One point about this drawing has always intrigued me. It's hard to
tell on the gif above but in the full size drawing it's obvious that
the crewman on the upper deck on the far left is black although it
doesn't jump out at you. This was very rare for the 1950s and I've
always wondered whose idea this was. Did Freeman sneak it past
everyone else? Did the von Braun group sneak it past the Collier's
editors? Did the Collier's editors suggest it to Freeman? Was
Collier's editorial policy pro racial equality in the 1950s?

Does anyone know the story here?

Jim Davis

Alan Anderson wrote:
No, that's how the Earth is. Take a look at a globe. The painting's
terminator line is perfectly reasonable (in isolation). Earth's axial
tilt can make the situation even more pronounced in Southern Hemisphere
summer.

Well, the terminator isn't quite perfect. Based on the
picture you'd expect about 70% of the Earth to be in
full sunlight. Also, you'll note the absence of any
polar ice caps. From these two facts we can discern
that the picture depicts a time when the Sun has
entered its red giant phase and swelled so large that
it covers a large portion of Earth's sky. This also
explains why the Moon is shown as volcanically active.
Those two space men are probably the only two humans
left alive.

Pat Flannery wrote:

Other than the immediate response of "Lots!", try to list _all_ the
little problems inherent in it:
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~jsisson/gifs/spacema.gif
Starting with choosing CO2 as your breathing gas, and the fact that the
Sun shines on the Moon from a different direction than it does on Earth.
:-D

Pat


More questions rather than nitpicks - I guess you've read the book, Pat:

1) Why do the city lights on Earth seem to be in Tennessee, New Mexico
and Ecuador? Is this after some sort of nookular holocaust?

2) What is the thin spire emerging from the mountains below the 'CONQUER
SPACE-' text? A sekrit Venoosian firewimmen base?

3) Why does the spacecraft on the ground have lots of fins and the other
one only two? Was it like the Thor stuff where the fins fell off and
they found they didn't really need them in the first place?

4) What is the purpose of the whole damn manoeuvre that's going on? Is
the top spacecraft about to power-up, or is it crashing? (Curiosity).
Either way, why the tether? It's surely not actually going to help that
guy whatever happens. (And I assume that the bloke in front is holding
the air force-issue oxygen mask in case the other geyser's helmet
smashes, which is highly probable.)

--

Fin

Jim Davis wrote:

Pat Flannery wrote:

One point about this drawing has always intrigued me. It's hard to
tell on the gif above but in the full size drawing it's obvious that
the crewman on the upper deck on the far left is black although it
doesn't jump out at you. This was very rare for the 1950s and I've
always wondered whose idea this was.


Sounds prescient about NASA though, doesn't it? Challenger had what I
always called the "Movie Bomber Crew" on its last flight- after all
those WW II films that had a crew of something... a B-17, a sub, a PT
boat, a combat squad, or a tank, which is made up of one representative
from each ethnic group in the Great Melting Pot acting in a very
stereotypical manner......but always with a WASP in charge.....and
always with the notable absence of African Americans, who don't seem to
even exist. (if you want to see this wonderfully overdone in space
sometime, watch the movie "Conquest Of Space"; which was strongly...and
wrongly, based on von Braun's Collier's work.)

Did Freeman sneak it past
everyone else? Did the von Braun group sneak it past the Collier's
editors? Did the Collier's editors suggest it to Freeman? Was
Collier's editorial policy pro racial equality in the 1950s?


You will note this about the black Moonship crewman:
1.) He seems to be cooking...or possibly washing dishes.
2.) He appears to be shackled to the wall.
3.) There are no white women on the ship.
4.) There is a noose in one of the ship's storage lockers....just in
case the Loony But Lovely Mare Maidens are encountered, and anything
"unfortunate" ensues.
Sorry....I finally got to see "The Hollywood Shuffle" for the first time
last night, and am still snickering about how on-target that movie is.
As for Collier's- according to Jeffrey Bell (collective sound of
muttering and hissing from newsgroups) Collier's wasn't exactly a
bastion of liberalism:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zzf.html

Pat

Christopher M. Jones wrote:

From these two facts we can discern
that the picture depicts a time when the Sun has
entered its red giant phase and swelled so large that
it covers a large portion of Earth's sky. This also
explains why the Moon is shown as volcanically active.
Those two space men are probably the only two humans
left alive.

This explains the CO2 tank- he's trying to keep cool.
And also what the other ship is up to...the heating of the Earth's
atmosphere by the swollen sun has driven it so far out that it has
caused the other ship to decay out of orbit around the Moon...the guy
has got the oxygen mask handy, because he's going to be able to breath
using just that in short order- when the giant steam cloud from all the
Earth's vaporizing oceans reaches the Moon and temporarily raises its
surface pressure level to where pressure suits aren't necessary!
Then _another_ giant comet is going to come flying out of Jupiter's
Great Red Spot, fly into the Sun, and cool it down again... just like
Venus did after Atlantis sank! =-O

Immanuel Flannakovsky
Chairman, Carl Sagan Revenge Squad

Henry Spencer ) wrote:
: In article ,
: Eric Chomko wrote:
: Also, the terminator has North America in pre-dawn darkness whereas South
: America is in morning sunlight has the earth skewed off its axis a lot.

: Nope. Look at a map: almost all of North America is west of the 75W
: meridian, while almost all of South America is east of it. Guayaquil,
: pretty much at the westernmost tip of South America, is almost due south
: of Miami. And if it's northern winter, so the Northern Hemisphere is
: tipped away from the Sun, I think the artist's position of the terminator
: is halfway plausible.

I checked "Exploration of the Universe, 6th Edition", by Abell and others
amd sure enough on page 81 shows the earth of Dec 22 and indeed it does
look similar to the artist's comic book cover. Not to pic but the north
pole area does seem a tad light on the comic cover.

My assumption was that the time zones (See:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ ) of Washington DC and Caracas, Ven
are the same, therefore the terminator would be more in line in that
manner. Bad assumption due to seasonal changes.

Eric

: --
: "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
: -- George Herbert |

Alan Anderson ) wrote:
: (Eric Chomko) wrote:

: Also, the terminator has North America in pre-dawn darkness whereas South
: America is in morning sunlight has the earth skewed off its axis a lot.

: No, that's how the Earth is. Take a look at a globe. The painting's
: terminator line is perfectly reasonable (in isolation). Earth's axial
: tilt can make the situation even more pronounced in Southern Hemisphere
: summer.

Yes, I stand corrected. The terminator does run right through Central
America puting NA in darkness and SA in light in winter AM.

: [The typical advice for someone in a deep hole is to stop digging. In
: your case, you're deep enough that you might be better off continuing on
: through to the other side...]

And stop learning?! Not on your life! I can be wrong. Fine. But I refuse
to stop learning. If your philosphy is to shut up in fear of being wrong
rather than be wrong and then as a result learn something, then you should
change your approach. My ego is simply not that large that it needs to get
fed by being right all the time.

Eric